May 9, 2009

Gumped

Louis
Stumberg and James Fulton invented a safety device for firefighters:
automatically sounding an alarm if a firefighter didn't move for some time
(presumably incapacitated). In 1989, the inventors hired
Akin Gump to file a series of patents.
Upon later enforcing the patents, they wound up getting settlements totaling $9
million. John
Raley of Cooper & Scully, one of
the firms representing the inventors: "When these actions were settled, they
were settled much more cheaply than they should have been settled for. The
royalty that should have been awarded to these plaintiffs was far less than if
Akin Gump had done their job properly in handling the patent applications." The
apparent problem: the prosecutor had failed to disclose information material to
the patent, and, according to Raley, did so with intent to deceive the PTO.